Got high blood pressure and PTSD? Then this is for you.

Your brakes fire like a machine gun as the ABS tries to give you back control of your car. The ice is merciless as it carries your car downhill. The frame of your car crumples, as it violently and abruptly embraces the telephone pole, the metal frame awkwardly wrapping itself around the wood, while you’re still trapped inside. Your heart’s pounding as fast as your breaks were a moment ago and blood’s running into your eyes.
Following this traumatic episode you can no longer get behind the wheel without your hands shaking and your palms sweating. What if there was one simple drug you could take to bring your life back to normal, block your fearful memory, and go back to taking for granted the ability to drive with confidence – take one pill and no longer feel that fatality is approaching in your rearview mirror. Or for that matter what if you’re the victim of a violent crime, or returning from war? Wouldn’t you too like to not necessarily forget, but at least no longer fear those memories? Well according to Dutch scientist at the University of Amsterdam this fear suppressing wonder drug may already be, or soon be, sitting in our medicine cabinet.
The scientist conducted a study using a drug called propranolol. This drug, which is classified as a “beta-blocker” is already used to reduce blood pressure. In the study the 60 undergraduate student who participated where shown a picture of a spider and then given a shock on the wrist. This was done so as to create a conditioned fear response; the undergraduates would associate seeing a spider with a shock so when they saw spider, regardless of being a shocked, they would still elicit a fearful response. Half the undergrads were then given propranolol and the other half was given a placebo. In subsequent testing the group that received propranolol no longer suffered the conditioned fear response, while students in the placebo group still did. This effect of propranolol has been shown to have the same effect in animal studies as well.
Although how propranolol produces this effect of diminishing fearful associations it is understood that beta-blockers, like propranolol, do have an influence on the chemical processes in the amygdala, the brain’s fear center. So propranolol might actually block the pathway by which the amygdala associates a fearful response with a certain memory.
But of course propranolol’s prospects raises concerns: "Removing bad memories is not like removing a wart or a mole," Daniel Sokol, lecturer in medical ethics at St George’s, University of London, says in a statement. "It will change our personal identity since who we are is linked to our memories. It may perhaps be beneficial in some cases, but before eradicating memories, we must reflect on the knock-on effects that this will have on individuals, society, and our sense of humanity." It has been proposed by others that some of these effects maybe the altering of other positive memories as well. In addition it can be imagined that a drug like this could easily be abused, like by someone just trying to forget a particularly embarrassing day at the office.
Whatever the ramifications, this drug may turn out to be very exciting and influential.


Sources:
-http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=could-a-blood-pressure-drug-dim-bad-2009-02-16
-http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20090216/beta-blocker-may-erase-fearful-memories
-http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/16/spotless_mind/